Staten Island Commuters Cry Foul Over Parking Tickets

NEW YORK(CBSNewYork) – It’s park at your own risk on Staten Island. Thanks to a sneaky sign at the St. George Ferry Terminal drivers are getting $95 tickets, even though they’ve already paid the $8 daily parking fee.

Anthony paid for his parking and displayed his receipt in his windshield. When he returned to his car he found a $95 parking ticket.

“You think that it’s okay to pull around there and park, then you find out when you get home that you have a ticket,” he said.

Anthony blames a sign that advertises “Daily Parking” on one side, but warns that the area is for “Permit Parking Only” on the other.

“The red side you’ll only see if you really look for it,” he said.

Anthony documented five other vehicles who made the same mistake, he told CBS2’s Tony Aiello that he suspects foul play.

“It has to be a trap. They have to know about it because they know they’re making money at that spot,” he said.

Even on a holiday Monday drivers are getting caught and community leaders are taking notice.

“We’re gonna hope to sit down with the DOT and get really clear signage everywhere at the terminal,” said Leticia Remauro, Community Board 1 President.

Until that happens, commuters will have to pay attention to where they park.

What do you think driver ignorance or fundraising scheme? Let us know in our comments section below…

What’s the matter? Are the rest of us not subsidizing you enough? Are we not paying enough of your share along with our own? Maybe we can time-travel back to the 1600’s and arrange for the Duke of Jersey to win that boat race.

The city is perfectly capable of putting up standard signs with arrows on them; putting signs back to back is not standard and not fair. Fighting these tickets with Parking Violations may be a crap-shoot until and unless DOT agrees that the sign is not appropriate; still worth trying with LOTS of photographs of the sign and the roadway (and lack of any markings thereon, or other signage making matters more clear). It also wouldn’t hurt to go in person (rather than fight by mail or online), and bring a copy of this article with you to the hearing. Again…it’s MUCH better if you can get a letter from DOT that they’re changing the signage to make it less confusing.

There are similar traps all over the city, with one sign that permits parking while another, less noticeable sign forbids it, and the police often waiting for victims to fall into the traps. The city council should pass a law that unless everything is written on one single sign, then the more restrictive sign is invalidated by the less restrictive sign.

It’s ridiculous.. It happened to me just last week at that same exact spot where the signage is unclear and hidden. There is no reason why that parking permit sign should be hidden behind the daily rate municipal sign.